Would be a nice June or September away trip if we got them again in qualifiers. Would do the week in Italy.  

I`ll freely admit I was willing San Marino to hold on for the draw, it would have been massive for them and it would've helped us get rid of Stan.

 

The thing that stands out for me was a few weeks before the match Mario Rosenstock did an almost prophetic skint on the radio set a couple of years after the match where he was interviewing Ireland manager Roy Keane about the infamous draw in San Marino.

It was all supposed to be mad stuff to make you laugh because of course we could never draw with San Marino and Keane could never have any part in an Irish set up.

One of the very low points in my almost 30 years following Ireland.

I was embarrassingly jumping round the house with relief when we got the winner but no matter what you think of the manager or Delaney, I can't fathom how you wouldn't want us to win. Supporting Ireland should be unconditional and above factors like the manager, or CEO of the FAI or because Roy Keane wasn't playing etc etc  It's the same mentality that hope we would fail under Trap if it mean't getting rid of him.

Ya it was a surreal feeling when Ireland scored,  I was gutted for San Marino. I had  given up qualification hopes long before the game so I was just hoping a rock bottom result like that would shake the sh1t out of Irish football.

 

Too much Vodka red bull drank in some English bar that night - Ended up leaving the San Marino shirt I bought there and had to go back to try and find it ! 12 hour delay on the flight back the next day due to snow in London !

Remember the game being awful - Remember having a serious moan to Stephen Hunt's parents on the way out (didn't know who they were at that stage). Really did feel like the start of the end for Stan that night.

 

Honestly fcuk San Marino. Let them worry about themselves.

 

You'd be quiet happy for us to have had another 'Leichenstein' and forever be associated with an embarrassing draw in San Marino that would make us a laughing stock?!

 

I can understand the lads on here not attending Ireland games due their bad treatment by the FAI but to not want the team to win 100% of the time just means you can't possibly call yourself an Irish supporter/fan as it's conditional on certain factors manager/CEO/state of Irish football.

The players preferred this is watching DVDs studying the opposition.

 

 

 

That's the same thing as people wanting Ireland to lose if it means getting rid of Trap/Delaney or whoever. Delaney's conduct has no bearing on me and it shouldn't on you wanting Ireland to win before, during or after a match.

 

As bad as it was and low as it was, the players on the pitch saved us from even worse embarrassment if we left San Marino with dropped points.

 

There would've been misguided fools (mostly Irish United fans) in 2002 who would have wanted Ireland to do badly at the world cup if it mean't reinstating Keane and getting rid of McCarthy of the next campaign.

 

I cannot stand this mentality of slitting your own throat in the short term in the hope it improves thing in the long term, hoping your team loses or draws if it means getting rid of the manager.

 

Anyone that thinks like that can't really be a genuine fan or supporter of the national side as your basing your loyalty on certain conditions. A bit like the event junkies who follow the team when the sun is shining last year in at the Euros.

 

For me the Slovakia last minute equaliser sticks out in the memory as much as this game and Cyprus. That was one of the most sickening moments of the last ten years. Cyprus was bad but it was a sh*t performance from top to bottom, as was San Marino. Slovakia away was an absolute hammer blow in the 90th minute, proper sickening and i think that killed all of our hopes. With the home wins against Wales and Slovakia there was actually a slight glimmer of hope, think we hammered someone like denmark in a friendly around then as well and believed against all proper wisdom that there was a chance that just maybe we had turned a corner. 

Even Alaba's last minute equaliser 4 years ago wasnt as bad as that as we still had it in our hands when Sweden came. Slovakia away in 2007 and Israel at home a couple years before that, two of the biggest sickeners in recent memory

That was a glorified friendly, we had nothing to play for. The atmosphere in the ground was fairly poisonous against Stan that night, but not as bad as it might have been because everyone knew he was on his way out.

The cops there were sound - Remember the ball going over the fence into the ground during the pre-game kick around. One of the cops more than happy to rescue it for us so the game could continue !

 

 

No high horse involved mate when expecting fellow Irish fans to want our team to win irrespective of other factors.

 

I also wasn't the one hoping we'd draw against the mountainmen either.

 

Okay, so you're a genuine fan as long as certain conditions are met and if Ireland are ever going through similar circumstances again, by your logic you'll be hoping the minnow they're playing get a result against us.

 

We then won our next 4 qualifiers to put us back in contention, albeit 2 against San Marino but I think the wheels really came off with that late Slovakian equaliser in Bratislava. If we'd have won that, we may have gone to Prague a few days later full of confidence. Our campaign was over the minute that Slovakian goal went in!

 

Had we held on for that win, and snuck a draw in Prague..........If me auntie had bo11ocks......

 

Never mind throwing the highhorse charge at me but your post agreed with Bitored when you stated 'Same here' after he posted that he was willing for a draw. That looked like you were also hoping for a draw or were at least were conflicted as it got Stan/JD off the hook.

 

If that's not what you were saying fair enough and you were also glad we got out of jail but like on the rugby thread, I can understand people being indifferent to our rugby side but actively hoping they lose because they don't like the fans or snobbiness of the rugby crowd is just ridiculous.

 

Never forget that one liner from Stan .

 

 

 

 

He got the transplant by the time of the away game in Slovakia and apparently was sensitive to the sl*gging. Don't know how much truth was in that story.

 

He took his goal brilliantly in that away game after a smart dummy by Keane. Fantastic first touch very classy cool finish.

 

And to think he's still only 30 years old. Would've been a great asset to have if he had a good attitude.

Bobby should have told Delaney to go and f**k himself. He owed us nothing.

This

 

Imagine needing 'great team spirit' to beat a poxy crowd like San Marino! We should have been well able to coast to an effortless win like we had done in Dublin. 

 

I can't remember being so angry and embarrassed watching Ireland as I was that night. The 5-2 against Cyprus was close enough though, when the alarm bells first started ringing on Stan's reign.

What's this about, did the thick end up going to San Francisco or something?

At a guess, I'm going to say Miami.

Ah will you go away out of that crap.

I was hoping for rock bottom so we could get rid of an inept manager and potentially put pressure on an inept CEO.
I`m positive I wasn't the only one with this mind-set and it just highlights the bleak period we were going through.

No matter how bad Stan was, we'd never have lived that down.

It may have been the ultimate reset button.

A 2-1 win is probably well inside our top 5 worst results anyway. No positives to be taken out of this episode.

And if we're in similar circumstances (still an inept CEO but good manager) you'd actively hope our players don't get the win. It's not the players fault there was a bad management set up at all levels and under Trap, I'm sure there were Irish fans hoping the team would fail in the short term to benefit us in the long term but it's poor form imo to not want our team to win every game no matter what you think of the management set up or structure around them at the time. 

I'd rather someone boycott the home and away games if you felt that way than want us to be embarrassed in San Marino because that would've been even worse than us getting out of jail with maximum points. 

Funnily enough Wales only beat them 2-1 over there too 

Don't really mean to be having a go at yourself or Irwin either. I just don't agree with the short term sacrifice for long term gain approach when all our Irish sides run themselves into the ground no matter who's in charge  

 

It's his grandad on his mam's side I blame, not his assorted grannies 

Fair enough

It was an exceptional set of circumstances and it is the only Ireland game I have ever watched where I thought a poor result would be better in the long run for Ireland.

Even during the Cyprus game when it went 4-2 I was full sure we`d pull it back to 4-4 and get out with the point  It just seemed like that kind of a mad game.

 

Wales were a minnow at that time and they were also 2-0 before they conceded. A very different situation to our near draw.

Funninest post in a long time

Dunphy flipped out big time.

I don't know if you can say that for sure. The Czechs and Germans were two decent sides then, the Czechs actually topped the group.

No doubt we should have put up a challenge for second. We had a squad far superior to the one that went to Poland/Ukraine.

I disagree with that to be honest. I dunno is that because I was at the games in Cyprus & San Marino, but any time I see or hear mention of Stan, the first thing I think of is that disastrous campaign rather than the stellar Irish career as a player. 

There is a number of things about the era & games under Stan that are kind of taken as fact these days, but don't really tally with my own memory of things. The Swedes in that friendly were as disinterested a bunch of lads who ever showed up for a September friendly, I remember remarking to someone that it was the first time I had ever seen a team go through 90 minutes without making a single tackle. We did play well considering, but even at the time, I thought it had all the hallmarks of a kind of faulty result that would have little bearing on reality. 

The Germany game, they scored via a deflected shot, but all our attacking efforts culminated in Jens Lehman catching a single cross (or it might have been a corner) in 90 minutes. It wasn't too bad of a performance considering, but wasn't anything great either. Cyprus ended the Irish careers of Kenny, Andy O'Brien & Morrisson, in my opinion, somewhat unfairly. Not saying any of the 3 would have had anything substantial to offer in later years, but O'Brien & Morrisson were probably worthy of squad places at the very least in later games, as ever, we weren't laden down with that much talent. 

Always thought the San Marino game was nearly the worse of the 2 in a way, the Cypriots were decent at home around that era, beat Wales there as well if memory serves me right, though Wales weren't up to much then either. I kind of see where the lads who half hoped SM would win were coming from, but I wouldn't have been one of them. At that time, we still had a lot to play for, and the optimist in me thought we might turn it around, though even at the time it looked unlikely due to the generally dire performances. 

By the time Cyprus home game came around, there were many many others with the same opinion as the lads, and I include meself in that, I was nearly half sorry Finnan got (an excellent finish) the equaliser, though the few thousand staying on 15/20 minutes after the game calling for JD's head was what did for Stan, if it was going to be one or the other , JD was making sure it wasn't going to be him. 

Spot on, Slovakia and Wales weren't easy games either by any means, even if they were weaker on paper. In fact, we were seeded fourth and finished third which is sort of ironic for that campaign. Conceeding in Slovakia so late on knocked the stuffing out of us, a win there and draw in Prague might have been enough. My endearing memory of the Stan era aside from Cyprus away would be Holland destroying us at home. 

Which is ironic when you consider that Stan came across as a Stan Laurel type gombeen when he spoke - "you tell me", "I am de gaffwer".

 

 

 

1 night Vienna

2 nights Bratislava

4 nights Prague

1 night London

 

Rented a lovely apartment on Wenceslas Square right beside Scorpios.

 

Also stayed in the Crowne Plaza in Bratislava, armed security on every floor.

 

Was he really though? I've often wondered about this poor ol' Bobby stuff. He was being well paid to do a a job as far as I know.

 

Agree fully that it should have been Delaney or Stan on the interview but whatever treatment he got on Liveline was timid to what he got over the years from the English media. I doubt he even gave it a second thought.

Fast forward 10 years, we now see how football has evolved and that the smaller teams are getting better tactically but the players were cowards that night imo. 

I agree with that. There was enough quality and experience on that pitch for a couple of leaders to step up and do a professional job. I can still feel the relief when Ireland scored, Kerr's reaction summed it up.

 

Trying not to sound heartless here but, that frail old great football man was picking up €250k a year. It wasn't like they put Charlie O'Leary out to defend the team!

I was watching 'The Charlton Years' with Colm Meaney again the other day, himelf and Mick Byrne come across as full of their own importance, especially in comparison to the likes of Jack and Quinn who had reason to be.

what he was on was irrelevant, he was nothing more than an ambassador. he cannot be held responsible for the debacle. a man with such a distinguished career being lambasted by halfwits on what is ireland version of the public stocks. Delaney knew what he was in for, i very much robson knew. It was absolutely disgusting to be honest and it shows what sort of character delaney is. The fact he is still helm a decade later says alot about this country. 

 

It was an absolute disgrace.